Despite God's Warnings, People CONTINUE IN THEIR SIN
The situation is that sadly, many sinners continue to remain hardhearted like the Pharaoh of the Exodus. From Exodus 7-12, we can read of the account of the Pharaoh who despite the signs and wonders God has shown, in hopes that he will let Israel go, continued to remain stubborn. Remember God allowed Pharaoh's heart to be hardened for a purpose- but Pharaoh hardened his heart at his own free will. When God said He will harden the heart of the Pharaoh, He did not mean He will really harden the heart of the Pharaoh but rather He will allow it so His glory is shown in Egypt. Listen, the Egyptians just like you and me are sinners in need of a Savior. God sent Joseph to demonstrate the reality of salvation was not only for the descendants of Jacob but also to everyone, including the wicked descendants of Ham, in the case of Egypt, they were born out of Mizraim, a son of Ham. What amazed me also is how he himself, the Pharaoh of the Exodus continued to remain stubborn to God's warning, he temporarily allowed the Israelites to be released only to later change his mind leading to his watery grave. But that was not the end of it. The Bible says that the same pattern will repeat until the end of the world. Whether or not the Lord Jesus will return by December 21, 2012 to end the church age, call His saints above no man cannot be certain. However, it's better than the Christian will rather be ready for the Second Coming of Jesus rather than believe in one failed speculation after the other. And now just an important note that I'd like to put before I continue- sinful living comes from the unsaved, degenerate heart and out from it, the natural man is basically a liar, a thief, murder, adulterer, drunkard and it's all because they are NOT SAVED (Romans 3:10-19, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). No truly saved person can ever live like the rest of the world even if they don't give their all.
As I read my Bible from page to page, I would like to say that the problem didn't start with Pharaoh. In fact, Cain was another example, he was also where the problem of stubbornness against sin and we would backtrack to Genesis leaving Exodus for now being the first murderer of the Earth as a consequence of Adam's irresponsible actions in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 4, we have the story of Cain and Abel. Remember God had no respect for Cain's offering. Why it happened must have been that God ordered a lamb without blemish and without spot to be offered, Cain could have confirmed his unbelief by not obeying what God said He required for an offering and worse, he tried to justify his killing of Abel as if was just a little offense. Regardless, we know God gave Cain the chance to repent yet he continued in his unbelief. Even killing all his descendants in the flood did not stop people like him from existing. In fact, Seth from all who we came from down to Noah, was still sin tainted. Seth's line was even mangled with the Cainite women that God had to end it. Sadly after our ancestor Noah, godlessness began again. This time in Genesis 11, Nimrod the son of Cush and the grandson of Ham began to be the first ruler. He was a rebel against the LORD by every means. Some historians even point that he was responsible for the start of Babylon Religion with his wife Semiramis who was most probably his sister due to the fact that there were only eight left after the flood (Noah, his sons, and their wives). Some archaeological evidence seems to suggest that Semiramis later had a son named Tammuz whom she claimed was her brother-husband reincarnated thus leading to Nimrod being called by some as the husband of his mother. Whatever it was, certainly the satanic religion spread like wildfire shortly after Babel, each one taking the concept of Nimrod's twisted ideas from the confusion at the Tower of Babel. However, the religion of human sacrifice and cannibalism most likely originated from there. Whatever it was, God hates it but loves people enough to warn them of their endangered status.
I would like to use Sodom and Gomorrah was another example. In Genesis 19, we discover how destructive Sodom really was at every turn. In fact, it was the stupidest thing Lot ever did. One can remember how Abraham and Lot had to part ways. Instead of letting Abraham decide, Lot decided for himself. We just don't get the word sodomy for another term of homosexuality from just any name but SODOM just like the word cannibal comes from Canaan. Some historians noted that Sodom was into various practices that eventually led to homosexuality. In fact, think of it that the strangers were so wicked they wanted to have sex with the angels that came to pull Lot out, before Lot stupidly wanted to put his daughters in such danger. Lot's wife was most likely a resident of Sodom and an unbeliever. In fact, Lot vexed a lot as Pastor Ruben L. Lumagbas Jr. stated in his sermon "Lot Vexed A Lot." where the name really means something. In fact, God could not find even ten righteous people to spare the city. Aside from homosexuality, they also had serpent worship, sex organ worship, temple prostitution, human sacrifices, pedophilia, etc. which I would puke if I saw it. Sadly today even after Sodom and Gomorrah got destroyed by God's fiery judgment, still the problem continued. In fact out from Lot's drunken incest with his daughters came forth Moab and Ammon, who were each other's nephew as well as siblings because the daughters got misled into believing that they were the last persons on Earth. And Moab and Ammon continued the sins of Sodom, yet from Moab came Ruth, an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ just like Rahab was from Canaan.
In the Book of Numbers or the wandering at the wilderness because of disobedience where only Joshua and Caleb may enter the promised land despite their old age, I would like to use the example of Korah's rebellion in the 16th chapter. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram should have known better than to rebel against God who set the rules in the first place. The tragic end of these unregenerate men just showed how much God's policies mean more than theirs. What Korah, Dathan, and Abiram did was that they showed just how unsaved they were by rebelling. Miriam thought she rebelled, God chose to cast her out for seven days as chastisement but not for Korah. I believe God really had enough. Whatever activities the three hooligans were doing in between Exodus 1 up to Numbers 16, the Bible is not clear on that and I cannot even verify if Dathan really urged Aaron to build the golden calf so they call all go back to Egypt- that was nothing more than writer's liberty in twisting the Scriptures. Whether or not they were involved in the golden calf worship, that I cannot say but most likely, they most likely only defected from the rebellion to save their skins. Even if Moses and Korah were first degree cousins, it didn't matter. Remember, God was going to show who was His. The rebellion's result just showed how much of unsaved men they were. In fact, the Earth swallowed them up into the pit of damnation. In fact, I believe that a grim picture of Hell was really shown here as the three hooligans fell into their eternal home. What I can say is this, perhaps it was a picture of God throwing people alive into the Lake of Fire in the not-so-distant future. I can only pray that my unsaved friends and relatives who are still alive will respond to the Gospel in time.
It's just to say also that the same stubbornness still exists. In the Book of Judges, Judges 21:25 says that everybody did what was right in their own eyes. Seriously, perhaps the Apostle Paul quoted that verse in Romans 10:3 of trying to establish one's own righteousness than them trusting in God's righteousness. God already told the Israelites to never cohabit with the people of Canaan for their judgment was due. Instead of continuing their fight to purge the holy land, what did they do? Instead, they intermarried with the heathens. The result was several generations of unsaved children born from these satanic unions. The sin cycles happened- Othniel, Ehud the left-handed, Deborah, Jephthah, Gideon, and Samson. In fact, in Jephthah's time the LORD even said in Judges 10:14 that they should cry out their gods. Wow. I am not surprised God has said such a statement, He clearly showed He was the only true God and that every other religion serves their own god. That is what is really happening today. In fact, one must take note that after each judge died, the same cycle happened all over again. Seriously they took their deliverers for granted. Later, they would take one deliverer for granted, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the Book of Judges is a prefigurement of how the Jews would later react against the biggest Judge of all, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Eventually we are taken to the two books of Samuel and the two books of the kings. In 1 Samuel 9 tells us the story of the Israelites who never learned their lesson. By wanting a king, it was clear that they rejected God's sovereignty over them. So God gave them what they wanted- a king. Saul was to be king. I am still about to do a study on Saul's salvation because I have my doubts he was ever saved. Perhaps another amazing lesson is also in 1 Samuel 5 way before Saul, we have the Philistines. After Samson's sacrificial death, still they chose to remain to their idols. I mean Samson demonstrated the power of the living God in his death yet the Philistines stay stubborn to their idol worship of their fish god who is not God. Even after God trampled the idol of Dagon, still the nation of Philistia persisted in idolatry. I would like to say also Saul was a good example of stubbornness. Rather than accept God's will that Jonathan would be the boy who would not be king, he rebelled. Jonathan was more than willing to accept God's will. I believe Jonathan was a saved man by his actions. Would have Saul just been obedient to God's will, how Jonathan could have served as a mighty man in David's army. Unfortunately, his father was that stupid to defy God's will. Perhaps Saul didn't die immediately after he struck himself, perhaps he had a last-minute repentance I cannot say but certainly, the consequences of justifying one's sins despite God's warnings were shown.
Or perhaps it's time to talk about the remainder books- the 1 and 2 Book of the Kings. After Solomon screwed it up his halfhearted reign, remember that Israel got divided into two. There was the Kingdom of Israel (North) and the Kingdom of Judah (south). The Kingdom of Judah had a few godly and some repentant kings from the line of David (ex. Rehoboam and Manasseh later repented of their sins) while the Kingdom of Israel was full of wicked kings. My favorite examples of the worst kings were Jeroboam and Ahab. Jeroboam was a servant of Solomon, ten tribes were given to him. Remember God promised him that he will be blessed ONLY if he obeyed God's commandments.
But after the split what did Jeroboam do? He promoted calf worship, reviving the pagan ceremonies and desecrated the temple rules. God wanted each and every priest in the Old Testament to be from Levi, not for Jeroboam- NOBODY was going to tell him what to do not even God. And much later, we have the most infamous of all- Ahab. What amazed me is that despite the drought God inflicted on Israel's northern kingdom. Ahab would rather listen to his queen and housewife Jezebel who cooked his meals, perhaps she did the laundry, massaged Ahab after a day of wickedness at Baal's temple and reared their children in the ways of Baal. Even after he saw Baal's fall, he refused to repent. And even after that he saw rain, he still refused. God gave him a sign, he still refused. Eventually what was amazing was that even after God warned him not to go to Syria, he still did anyway. He thought he could outsmart God but he didn't. In fact, God took his life way earlier than Jezebel (who was given at least 20 years to repent, wow that's a LONG TIME) and sent him to Hell. Later after 20 years of stubborn unbelief, it was Jezebel's turn and Elijah's warning became a prophecy that instant Jehu threw her off. What amazed me also was that the god Baal was in some cultures a moon god and not a storm god which may even point to Islam's god Allah, represented by the crescent moon.
In the Book of Isaiah, one can really also know it was during the times of Ahaz the wicked, who despite warnings still persisted in idolatry. Later, we see perhaps the most daunting stubbornness of all from the enemy nations- King Sennacherib! Sennacherib was a mighty man who boasted that not even the gods of every other nation could conquer him. That was confirmed in the speech of his general, Rabshakeh and it was during the time of King Hezekiah. Listen, Sennacherib already had the warning that certainly God will deliver Judah from his hands. But what did Sennacherib do? He most likely told Rabshakeh to defy the LORD of Israel. The result of that was the Angel of the LORD came down, killed all his armies, and later, Sennacherib was killed by his other sons. So much more for saying that the LORD will not deliver. In fact, the days of Isaiah were just the beginning of even more sorrows than there ever will be. It was also the days when the Messiah was prophesied. Isaiah 53 talks about this- the suffering servant. The Lord Jesus Christ was already predicted in Isaiah as a part of the prophecy. And it was during that time when Hezekiah foolishly made a deal with Merodachbaladan of Babylon, that might have caused Manasseh to go berserk with idolatry for fifty long years!
Then we can go to the Book of Jeremiah where it starts with the end of good King Josiah's reign who unfortunately was succeeded by bad eggs like Jehoiakim who was cursed and later Zedekiah who was driven into exile. From all the prophetic books, I am really enamored with the Book of Jeremiah. The reason has to be this- Jeremiah's situation is far worse than what I am suffering. There are times I am alone, yet I still have more friends than he did. But not him, seriously he was stuck with Baruch and later he was alone. Well Elijah was probably more lonely than he was hiding in the book of Cherith yet Jeremiah had a longer, harder life. As a Calvinist like Charles Haddon Spurgeon was, not hyper by any means, I believe God already appointed Jeremiah's fate since he said, "Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you." to this poor prophet. To the eyes of Judah, he was a pathetic wretched man! He preached of warning yet the situation was getting worse.
In Jeremiah 5:31, we read that false prophet and corrupt preachers were everywhere and the people loved it. In Jeremiah 6:16 one of my favorite verses to quote for a real revival, God wanted people to follow His old paths yet most people choose not to- even today. I had a conversation with a pastor's wife and she told me that sadly most women today are probably worse than Jezebel then it comes to household duties. At least Jezebel would submit to her hubby Ahab no matter how wicked of a woman she was. And what is worse is that Jeremiah saw idolatry especially the worship of the Queen of Heaven (7 and 44), which today happens in the form of "Mary" worship in some pseudo-Christian churches. I did remember how many idols I've seen from some religions that eat people up with lies had a mother goddess carrying her baby, or even reading myths similar to that like Hera and Hephaestus (Hephaestus according to some sources had no father and she is Hera's firstborn), the goddess Shing Moo and her child, Devaki and her son Krishna and Isis and Horus. That baby is nothing more than a satanic counterfeit of Jesus when God promised in Genesis 3:15 that the serpent will one day be crushed. In fact, I really cry whenever I read the book of Jeremiah, the situation today is no different. Or for other prophets, one can also refer to Ezekiel and Hosea, in which both books also showed how much God is hurt by the idolatry of Israel.
Now I have no time to really talk much about the prophets of the Old Testament. Perhaps I could quote Ezekiel on idolatry, or where women were weeping for Tammuz and the abominations that he saw. Now I'd like to jet tour through the Book of Daniel. Daniel and his three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were part of the 70 years of exile. Seriously I would go nuts if I were a believing Jew living that time and I had to suffer for the sins that I didn't commit all because people did not believe in God's warning against sin if it would not be God's grace intervening in my life. I just gave a thought of Daniel's situation in Babylon was the very unfortunate trial of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar who is seldom credited as Nabonidus.
First I would like to talk about Nebuchadnezzar who in history was hailed as one of the mightiest kings. Babylon was the nation of the moon god, it is part of that is Iraq today. Mesopotamia was split into Assyria and Babylon, two empires of cruelty. Nebuchadnezzar for one already had heard of the interpretation of his dream by Daniel about the future. However later, he had a huge idol of gold built in Babylon where the people had to worship it. Despite the fact that he saw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the fire, and in that fire was the Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate form, he remained stubborn. It took an experience to go wild for seven years before he could go back to his senses. I would also like to mention Belshazzar's pride and downfall. He thought he was better than God by using the utensils used for the worship of God, to praise the gods of Babylon. The result was Belshazzar's untimely death and it could just be imagined with how shocked he was to enter into Hell that very night!
Now I would like to go through the New Testament and my favorite example are the Pharisees in the four synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As you know it, the Pharisees were one incredible machine of evil pretending to be good- in short it was show business. Folks, that is how most deception spread like fire- direct force doesn't work as good as feigned goodness which deceives the people- and that is how in the future the Antichrist will destroy many in what I believe that this could be the last generation but I am not saying though I know when the time or hour is (Daniel 8:25, Acts 1:7). 1 Corinthians 11:4 says that Satan can masquerade as an angel of light. I was deceived several times because of such charming deception, pity me. But pity more for people who are deceived into buying the bigger lies where they spend literally millions if not billions of their money over false religion. The Pharisees were a money-making machine of deception and evil. If those hypocrites believed in the Apocrypha or even taught it, perhaps they used the deception found in 2 Maccabees to justify purgatory to devour widow's houses. What was so amazing about the Pharisees is that even if they already saw the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, they still refused to believe. Even after they heard how short they were in catching up to God's perfect standard, they still refused. Why was that? The answer is pride. They even condemned Jesus for extending His love to repentant sinners. In soulwinning, it would really be expected the prostitute from the brothel and not the religious hypocrite who owns the brothel, or the leaders of false religion to get a true conversion because Jesus said that the prostitutes and publicans are most likely to repent then the Pharisees ever will. I could remember how Pastor Ray Comfort used the example of the adulterous woman in John 8, that the Law convicted her of sin and she was converted. W
hat about the Pharisees? They acted as if they never sinned and also, they were setting up a trap for the Lord Jesus which Pastor John Macarthur just loves to tackle that serious issue in some of his sermons. They continued to persist in their unbelief even after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. While Jesus' unbelieving half-brothers finally believed after the resurrection, most of the Pharisees didn't. The only notable conversions were Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and my favorite example, Saul of Tarsus. Saul after he renamed himself as Paul to show he was truly converted, wept for the Jews' unbelief. God already showed various warnings like the death of Herod Antipas in Acts 12:20-23 by being eaten of worms (sadly he is now in Hell where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched, one must note he also was responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist and mocking Jesus with a glamorous robe) yet the Pharisees refused to believe. In fact, one can call the situation of Stephen the first New Testament Church martyr being stoned to death as a very good example. Seriously Pastor Peter the fisherman no matter how he preached, others still opposed him.
Actually the problem still persists today. I really am also heartbroken with the events of the history of the Church had to go through with persecution all because people choose to ignore God's warnings from the Dark Ages to the Reformation and even to this very day. I read some really bad articles written against many men of God. Please, I will not LINK these articles, I don't want to give Satan any more traffic than he already has on the Internet nor would I encourage the faithful to even read them- just never mind them, keep preaching! I really and seriously pray that people reading this, will repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, for there is no other way (John 14:6). Sadly many people love their sins they refuse to repent (John 3:20, John 5:40).